close
close
hsuses

Danish Prime Minister still not feeling well after street attack

Theo

Image source, Getty Images

  • Author, Malu Cursino
  • Role, BBC News

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she was fulfilling her duties as head of government but had not yet fully recovered from last week’s street attack.

“I am not really myself yet,” said Ms Frederiksen in an interview with Danish broadcaster DR.

The Prime Minister was attacked by a man who approached her in Copenhagen’s Old Town on Friday evening.

“As a human being, it felt like an attack on me… but I have no doubt that it was the Prime Minister who was hit,” said the 46-year-old.

“It was an attack on all of us,” she added, speaking of a perceived change in tone in Danish politics in recent times.

Ms Frederiksen is said to have suffered whiplash after the incident. The attack was not considered politically motivated.

An arrested 39-year-old Pole appeared for a preliminary hearing at the court in Frederiksberg on Saturday.

He was accused of violence against a public official, but he denies any wrongdoing, local media reported.

In her interview with DR on Tuesday, Ms Frederiksen said that there is no place for violence in any form in Danish society.

The incident, which occurred two days before the European elections in Denmark, was strongly condemned by world leaders, with EU Commissioner Charles Michel expressing his “outrage”.

Frederiksen, 46, became prime minister in 2019 after taking over as leader of the centre-left Social Democrats four years earlier, making her the youngest prime minister in Danish history.

In the same interview with the Danish broadcaster, the Prime Minister was also asked about the results of the European elections, in which her Social Democrats were defeated by the green-left SF party, which received more than 17 percent of the vote.

Ms Frederiksen, who had to pause her campaign over the weekend to recover from the attack, said she was “really sorry” about the result but stressed that she was listening to voters.

Related Posts